GE Aerospace Submits Engine Reports for Air India Crash Investigation

NEW DELHI: American major GE Aerospace has sent the engine analysis reports of Air India's ill-fated Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which crashed last June 12 in Ahmedabad.

This was among the crucial inputs awaited by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) for preparing the final report on the AI-171 crash that left 260 people dead.

"The engines were sent to the US for analysis by GE, and their reports are in. All inputs awaited have been received now. The AAIB will now analyse all factors, do the sequencing and the final report should be out in about two months," said a person in the know.

Now, all eyes are on the AAIB to see if it can pinpoint what exactly caused the crash.

The report is going to be scrutinised very closely globally and could also be challenged in courts across multiple countries.

"What we know is that the engines had stopped owing to fuel supply cut. What we don't know is why this happened. Air accident investigations have to eliminate all probabilities and zero in on what could have happened. What the final report should definitely not do is resort to obliquely blaming someone or something if the exact cause is not zeroed in on," said an expert who has been probing air accidents for decades.

This expectation stems from a controversial line in AAIB's first prelim report issued last July.

It read: "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so."

AAIB had to defend itself a lot after a furore over the first prelim report.

Senior investigators say the engine report will likely be on expected lines - that there was nothing wrong with them and that they stopped after being starved of fuel for some reason, which is not yet known.

"It will be lazy and easy to blame the dead pilot who can't defend himself. The AAIB report has to have a very solid reason to say what it does in the final report. Whether they have the technical capacity for a probe of this dimension will be known soon," said another experienced investigator.

The first prelim report said "engine 1 and engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after the other with a time gap of 01 sec(ond)", causing the aircraft to rapidly lose altitude.